When your manufacturing team meets every morning to discuss the production plan for the day, does each person understand his/her responsibilities? Are they communicating the details to their associates? Is everyone truly working as a team? Does your team even meet each morning to discuss the game plan? No? Lean Solutions Group, LLC can help you implement a successful sales and operations planning process in a relatively short period of time---usually in 60 days or less---that will begin to optimize your supply chain resources and establish disciplined tools for meeting your customer's expectations profitably.
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) should be a formalized, company-wide process in any manufacturing organization. All too often, however, there are no formal processes for balancing customer requirements with operating resources. As a result of the lack of a disciplined planning and scheduling methodology a reactionary environment takes over. What was known as the production plan at 7:00 am this morning usually has little resemblance to the plan being worked at 3:30 pm. Jobs are inserted while other jobs become past-due since they were not deferred and re-promised to the customer. Consequently the schedule and its date driven priorities become meaningless.
Why is this type of environment so prevalent within manufacturing organizations? Although there are many derivatives of answers to this question, it usually points back to a lack of a formal S&OP planning process. Think of S&OP as the quarterback on a football team and the other team's players consist of the MPS, MRP, manufacturing, distribution, and supplier segments of the value chain. As long as the sales & operations plan is effectively communicated by the quarterback, and understood by the various members of the team, the entire team can execute each play. And, just as important, the quarterback communicates every play with the entire team, not individually, by conducting a huddle before executing each play.
Let our extensive experience help your organization establish and maintain an achievable schedule, help your team create the tools it needs to succeed in managing the balancing of resources, and consistently achieve your customer's expectations.